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Younger Adults with HIV Experience Shorter Times to Viral Rebound

published on July 16, 2018 by Kenneth Bender, PharmD, MA, in MD Magazine

A Canadian study found that a patient's age was a factor in HIV viral rebound after suppression with treatment, with younger adults experiencing lower prevalence of viral suppression and shorter time to viral rebound than older adults.

"There is an age effect," principle investigator Robert Hogg, MSc, PhD, British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver, and Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, told MD Magazine®. "However, I think the important point here is that specific subpopulations at all ages are more at risk of not suppressing, or rebounding if they do, than the other people in the cohort," Hogg said.

In the present study, the researchers sought to distinguish between adults ≤29 years of age and older adults for prevalence and correlates of viral suppression. They identified 9031 HIV-positive adults in 3 of Canada's most populous provinces, including 1281 individuals ≤29 years of age, who had initiated antiretroviral therapy between 2008-2011 or 2012-2013.

The researchers defined viral suppression and rebound from at least 2 consecutive viral load measurements of <50 or >50 HIV-1 RNA copies/ml, respectively, at least 30 days apart, in a 1-year follow-up period. Of the participants, 477 were excluded for not meeting these criteria, but the number excluded was not significantly different between age groups.